Programa de Reconstrucción Rural (PRR)

World Accord has been partners with Programa de Reconstrucción Rural (Rural Reconstruction Project) in Honduras since 1986, helping them achieve their goal statement:

"To promote integrated participatory development with the people in the rural Honduran communities where Programa de Reconstrucción Rural works. To achieve with program participants a higher standard of living with human dignity, while conserving the natural environment for future generations."

PRR has a variety of programs addressing healthcare, education, community organization and agriculture. Recent successes include:

Healthcare

• A medical clinic – The Clinic PRR La Buena Fe – served a record 2,145 patients
• At their request, 14 women received contraceptive education and sterilization
• Food preparation and natural medicine was taught at 8 different workshops

Community Organization

• Held 12 training sessions on parliamentary rules for running meetings and general administration
• 24 houses were constructed in El Barro for new families and for those who were living without adequate shelter
• 120 Lorena stoves were constructed for local families, moving food preparation up off the floor and venting smoke to the outside (greatly reducing the number of children with smoke-related eye infections and respiratory illnesses)
• 80 local families received metal silos for storing corn – preventing rats and mice from destroying 50% of the crop

Education

• 4 schools were renovated, supplied with new textbooks, basic teaching materials and seeds for the gardens

Agriculture

• 6 greenhouses for coffee and fruit trees produced more than 24,000 coffee plants and over 6,000 fruit and natural trees
• 2,000 trees planted per community

These facts only tell part of the success story of PRR. Thanks to the efforts of PRR and the support of you and World Accord, many families in that part of Honduras have improved their well-being – economically, socially, environmentally and personally.

Soil Conservation in Honduras

A significant PRR project in Honduras is training farmers to practice soil conservation techniques to reduce soil erosion and deterioration. Farmers are taught how to use a large surveying level to run living (plant) or non-living (rock) barriers along contours at a constant elevation on the mountainside, and then plant crops between the rows of barriers. These techniques lead to dramatically better crop yields and protect the long-term value of the soil.

This PRR initiative, which is constantly being expanded, has already created a noticeable decrease in the amount of sediment carried in local rivers. The preservation of the natural fertility of the environment in the project areas is essential to sustaining the land and its resources for future generations.